The malaria vaccine is working, and it is saving children's lives
Four years into the first real world rollout, the evidence is in, and it is measured in children who are still alive.
When the world's first malaria vaccine began reaching children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in 2019, the open question was whether trial ground promise would survive contact with real clinics, real supply chains and real families. In May 2026, a peer-reviewed evaluation in The Lancet answered it. Among the young children eligible for the vaccine, roughly one in eight deaths from any cause was averted over four years.
How we know
The finding comes from a large evaluation of the pilot programme, published in The Lancet and reported by the World Health Organization, covering more than two million children. What makes it striking is that it was achieved in ordinary conditions, not ideal ones, with only about 71 percent of children getting three doses. The vaccine, known as RTS,S, is now part of routine immunisation in 25 African countries.
Why it matters
Malaria is one of the oldest and heaviest burdens on child health in Africa. A tool that cuts deaths even partially, delivered through normal clinics, can protect millions of children a year. It works alongside bed nets and treatment, not instead of them.
Malaria still killed an estimated 438,000 African children in 2024. A 13 percent cut in child mortality is a profound thing and a partial thing at the same time. This is a powerful new tool, not the end of the disease. And the main brake now is not science but money: the World Health Organization is explicit that funding shortfalls will decide how many children the vaccine actually reaches.
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